Touchpad over a mouse

[adc.]

Just making poll regarding these things. My friends think I'm weird because I play games without a mouse. It's as easy as playing with a mouse. Are there anyone else who prefers touchpads over a mouse? Or is it just me .-.

[keira]

I prefer a mouse, or in some cases, a gamepad (Gamecube via USB, to be specific). The touchpad thing does seem a bit off but the great thing about computers over consoles is that you can have whatever weird setup works for you and that's perfectly okay

Edited May 9, 2014 by sylae
It also all depends on the hardware. I spend a a lot of time on the computer so I've invested in a pretty good keyboard and mouse

[Lilith]

comedy answer: trackball

[Rya.Reisender]

Gamepad!

[Tyranicus]

It depends on the game. I have no issue playing SW games with a touchpad, but I would hate to play an FPS that way.

[Randomizer]

I use both and alternate to which ever is easier to use at that point in the game.

[Earth]

some games are impossible with touchpad.

[Xaiya]

Where's the command line option?

 

I prefer the mouse. While I've gotten to use the touchpad enough that I'm fairly used to it, it just feels awkward with games.

[adc.]

I prefer my touchpad over mouse at every game, may it be TF2, Skyrim, Witcher, Deus Ex etc. aiming for the head is much better with a touchpad for me. It kinda started because my brother and I shared the cursed netbook playing online games + Spidweb ones. One day, the mouse fell off his double decker bed and it broke. It was really ungrateful for me asking my dad to buy a new one, so I had no choice but to use the touchpad.

 

Touchpad gaming also had its benefits. Bringing our laptop to school, playing games when teachers are not around. > Then my classmates are like "Woah, you play TF2 without a mouse? What badass."

 

But it looks like I'm the only one in here using touchpad for gaming

[A less presumptuous name.]

For gaming, or at least games that involve response time or lots of clicking, I use a conventional mouse. For everything else, I use a bizarre mixture of both. While browsing a single website, I'll switch between the two just scrolling around.

[nikki.]

Like Sy, I prefer to use either a mouse or a gamepad (360 controller).

[Goldengirl]

For most things I use my track pad. I've had to include gaming with this. I have a mouse, but no good mouse pad and I've perpetually forgotten to get a new one. However, I make it a point to improvise some sort of surface for playing any real time game, save Geneforge. I used to have a really big economics textbook that worked well, but I was finally able to sell it. In retrospect, maybe I should have used some of that money to get a better mousepad. I probably used it for something unimportant, like groceries.

[Alorael at Large]

I can and often do use a trackpad for gaming. I'm accustomed to it, and even use it most of the time, but I still prefer a mouse for games that require quick reflexes and good mouse pointing skills. That's not actually very many games that I play, but for those few the mouse is not indispensable but very handy.

 

—Alorael, who believes the true hardcore answer is gaming with a peripheral not intended for that use. Like by singing exactly the right tones into a microphone.

[Lilith]

—Alorael, who believes the true hardcore answer is gaming with a peripheral not intended for that use. Like by singing exactly the right tones into a microphone.

 

fun fact: most Guitar Hero controllers can also be used as exceptionally unwieldy regular controllers for the console they're made for

[Callie]

I exclusively use my mouse for gaming; I use the trackpad for other general computer usage.

[A less presumptuous name.]

This brings up an interesting question. How many people here have desktops? laptops? both? If you don't have a laptop, it's much less likely that you'd be using a trackpad.

[Lilith]

i have a laptop but i use it as my main computer and plug in the mouse from my desktop, because my desktop is like 5 years old and barely works any more

 

i've been saving up money for a new computer because my laptop's kind of getting old and chuggy now too, but lately i have had higher priorities, like getting my car fixed or having people shoot laser beams at me

[Dikiyoba]

i have a laptop but i use it as my main computer and plug in the mouse from my desktop, because my desktop is like 5 years old and barely works any more

My poor laptop is basically a mobile desktop at this point, since it needs an external fan and I need a mouse (using the trackpad for a prolonged period of time hurts my hand) and I use it for long enough at a time that it's easiest to keep it plugged in.

 

or having people shoot laser beams at me

That sounds like more fun than it actually is.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Randomizer]

... having people shoot laser beams at me

as long as they don't turn up the power too much ....

[Edgwyn]

My answer is very similar to Aloreal's in that I end up using a trackpad for a lot of games but prefer a mouse if I need precision. I do miss the games that I used to play with a joystick or paddles. My laptop does not have a numeric keypad which would come in handy for some of the games that I play.

 

Lilith, when my daughter was a baby, I had read somewhere that a trackball was easier for a little kid to manipulate. So I would put her in her highchair in front of my computer with a trackball w/four buttons to play her sesame street game. Most of the time that meant I was playing my games with a trackball also since a couple of extra steps would be required to change input devices.

[Sudanna]

Alorael, who believes the true hardcore answer is gaming with a peripheral not intended for that use. Like by singing exactly the right tones into a microphone.

 

[Actaeon]

I used a touchpad because it's what I have. It works better for everything else, and I'm used to it for most games. However, I get destroyed in certain Minecraft minigames, and I chose to blame that on the device instead of my own ineptitude.

[adc.]

Headshot with a wheel wtf.

 

I used a touchpad because it's what I have. It works better for everything else, and I'm used to it for most games. However, I get destroyed in certain Minecraft minigames, and I chose to blame that on the device instead of my own ineptitude.

 

Good to know I'm not the only one.

 

Oh yeah, save a few milliseconds by chatting on your friends and scrolling with the touchpad. It's so near that I scroll my FB posts with my thumb while chatting with my friends

[Triumph]

The only computer I own is a laptop, and I've always been too much of a cheapskate to use a anything but the touchpad.

 

Actually, I did buy a mouse once, tried very briefly, and returned it, having found it most unsatisfactory. I've never bothered to try to find another one. Touchpad works well enough for me for using Word / PowerPoint / internet / SW games.

[Earth]

This brings up an interesting question. How many people here have desktops? laptops? both? If you don't have a laptop, it's much less likely that you'd be using a trackpad.

 

I have both but don't use laptop for anything except as alternative if either desktop doesn't work.

[Randomizer]

I have a laptop that I rarely use anymore except for older Spiderweb games. Mostly I use a desktop, but I find a touchpad easier for lots of scrolling where I don't need the faster right click button of a mouse.

[Alorael at Large]

I haven't had a desktop in years and years. I occasionally borrow someone else's, and I recognize that you can build for yourself a desktop with specs that will smoke any laptop for a fraction of the price, but I value mobility and, honestly, Mac too much.

 

—Alorael, who actually has two laptops. One of them is a strong argument for the superior quality of the trackpad on his Macbook. He didn't realize how bad trackpads could get until he found himself using the nub instead most of the time out of frustration.

[Edgwyn]

I have a two year old MacBook and a six year old IMAC so I use both a laptop and desktop at home. At work, I use a laptop with a docking station so the user experience is very desktop like. I passed on our latest tech refresh as the new laptops were very small and I do not want to deal with a very small screen and very small keyboard on the road.

[nikki.]

fun fact: most Guitar Hero controllers can also be used as exceptionally unwieldy regular controllers for the console they're made for

 

yeah, i've played done this before. it was not fun.

 

i use a custom-built desktop that, despite being two years old (cry cry) still runs most current games on high settings. as such, i haven't really had many opportunities to use a trackpad except on my ex-GF's macbook. the mac trackpad is excellent. i think i'd still prefer a mouse/gamepad, but a trackpad like that one might be more useful for non-gaming things.

[A less presumptuous name.]

One nice thing about a trackpad that I've noticed: as a college student, and as one who prefers morning classes, I am often up before my roommate. Since I plug my laptop into enough peripherals to make it feel almost like a desktop, I end up doing my morning web browsing in my room. Using a trackpad cuts out the clicking and scrolling noises, which I consider to be a nice courtesy to the poor sleeping child.

[keira]

One nice thing about a trackpad that I've noticed: as a college student, and as one who prefers morning classes, I am often up before my roommate. Since I plug my laptop into enough peripherals to make it feel almost like a desktop, I end up doing my morning web browsing in my room. Using a trackpad cuts out the clicking and scrolling noises, which I consider to be a nice courtesy to the poor sleeping child.

now i feel like an asshat

 

my college roommate had to deal with mechanical keyswitches.

[Cairo Jim]

A touchpad is awkward and annoying at the best of times. A mouse it is.

[adc.]

One nice thing about a trackpad that I've noticed: as a college student, and as one who prefers morning classes, I am often up before my roommate. Since I plug my laptop into enough peripherals to make it feel almost like a desktop, I end up doing my morning web browsing in my room. Using a trackpad cuts out the clicking and scrolling noises, which I consider to be a nice courtesy to the poor sleeping child.

 

That's also a reason why I prefer my touchpad over a mouse, especially when playing NVW Shadowmantle on the cold hours of the morning while my dad and my other brother slept. I had to spam the mouse button which made repeated noises. I even looked up in the net (which was stupid of me) on how to silence the mouse using the control panel sound options.

[BMA]

Touhpads are ohk for turn-based point-and-click adventures like Geneforge and Avadon. But if you're on Windows with a game that requires a lot of right-clicking (FPS scope-zooming), the touchpads becomes rather inconvenient.

 

As for Avernum and Nethergate, heh, the keyboard is all you need.

[Tycho Maudd]

Ever since I've first used my thinkpad, I love using the trackpoint. For games, it works like a mini joystick, plus lets you keep both hands on the keyboard for additional controls.

[Mistah Q]

For most games I use some combination of mouse and keyboard.

 

For some games I'll prefer to plug in a controller... which is a good little point. I have a very generic cheap logitech usb controller that's quite similar to a PS2 controller. If anyone has suggestions for an improvement let me know.

 

My current laptop has a touchscreen too and yet I still prefer the mouse in most circumstances.

 

This actually happened to me on one of my Avadon 2 playthroughs - my mouse was beginning to malfunction just slightly. Like sometimes a click would register as a double-click. It was causing me to pick dialogues I didn't want (or rather, I didn't even know what I picked sometimes), to close windows, to miss messages... seems simple enough on a game like Avadon to just use the trackpad or, heck, just reach up and press "1" or "2" or "3"... but no, I couldn't function, and had to put off finishing until I got a new mouse.

[Lilith]

bring back the nipple mouse

[adc.]

bring back the nipple mouse

[Toenail Returns]

Speaking as someone who had done four hour stretches of raids on World of Warcraft for a stretch of a few months, I can speak with confidence that a touchpad is not helpful for a gaming experience without carpal tunnel. I decided to stop playing once the pain became fairly noticeable, which is actually what ended saving my wallet quite a bit of damage. So I suppose if you're looking to save money, go for a touchpad. If not, save yourself the pain and buy a good mouse.